


Dreams

by yoncepadthai



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, a few lines are bloody but nothing more than what you see on the show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-07 06:06:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6789118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoncepadthai/pseuds/yoncepadthai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A glimpse into what plays out in the minds of Karen and Frank at night. Taking place during the middle of the trial. </p>
<p>Prompt for Kastle Week on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreams

It was easy to describe the feeling Karen was currently experiencing. The black pumps had been kicked off, dress unglued from her body, and now her blankets were wrapped snugly around her. _Freedom._

She let her aching body sink into the mattress, tucked her chin under the blanket, and burrowed herself deeper into the sheets. A few bits of her last conversation still rattled through her mind as she drifted off to sleep.

What had she said to Foggy? Every time Frank wakes up he has only the briefest of moments, before he realizes the nightmare is real?

She guilty bit her lip. She too had woken up from her own nightmares, covered in sweat, bitterly discovering that the nightmares were real.

"Not tonight," she muttered determinedly into the dark. Tonight she would have only good dreams.

Sirens wailed off in the distance. An ancient air conditioner clicked on, rattling and humming, somewhere in the building. Cats hissed in the alley. _And the engine roared._

Roared so loud she could hear nothing else. Kevin rolled the car window down and both of their golden locks, that family trait, flew into their eyes. Distorting their vision, forcing them to shield their eyes, wrapping a hand around their foreheads. It only made them laugh even louder. "Faster!" Karen yelled at the top of her lungs. She was laughing so hard her eyes had began to water. Giggling, she glanced into the rear view mirror to wipe her eyes and check her mascara. She caught sight of someone in the backseat.

“Frank?” Karen exclaimed in shock, whipping around to face him. “Why were you in my house?” he shouted over the wind, his eyes overflowing in pain. She watched the tears roll down his face, splash off his cheek, and onto the body he held his lap. The tear disappeared into the small child's blood stained clothes. Body riddled with bullet holes.

She shot up from the park bench and watched Frank stagger from one fallen body to the next. Each step more labored then the next. Every movement filled with dread and denial. Shallow rasping breath. Moaning names too quietly for her to hear. She clutched limply at the files in her hand. She felt her fingers loosen and dip her head down to watch in slow motion the photos slip out and fall to the ground. Crime scene photos scattered.

She walks around the location of the Irish gang murder. Moving police tape out of her way as she goes. Bodies scattered on the floor, broken bits of wood splinted in the walls, blood smeared. She has their murder weapon in her hands. She is the only one pulling the trigger.

She stands before Wesley, he is laughing at her. Her palms begin to sweat. _Bang_.

Ben is leaning towards her, offering her a hug, when his brows furrow in confusion. The gun feels cold in her hand. _Bang_.

Mrs. Cardenas' smile drops as she raises her hands above herself. The gun feels like a ton. _Bang_.

Kevin. She closes her eyes while she takes the shot. _Bang_.

"It's okay," she hears. She winces at the sound of another voice and cracks open one eye. Frank is crouched in the broom closet with her. It's more cramped in here than she remembered. "I have to get away," she finds herself sobbing, "It's my fault, it's me. I'm cursed."

"Okay," he says gently, "the spaceship is taking off soon." His words are logical and calming to Karen. Soon, she will be lifted far away from this mess. His eyes stay fixed on her, anchoring her. He begins lifting her fingers off the gun, still gripped tightly in her hand. One by one, he pulls her fingers off. Replacing his steady fingers for her shaky ones until finally she is free and her hand empty. He sticks the gun into his jeans, out of sight. She can breathe easier now. He reaches above them and yanks a blanket off the shelf. It's the one her Grandmother made, Karen's favorite, and he wraps it around her shoulders. Tight. She can feel the warmth of his skin through the faded green fabric. His hands move up and down her shoulders - creating a lullaby of friction.  

"Remember when Kevin and I made that pillow fort in the basement? We used this blanket."

"Sure, sure, that one New Years," she hears him say. His laughter is low. _So low, it vibrates_.  

Vibrating against her wood nightstand. She hates waking up to that annoying sound. Back in the real world, Karen's alarm is buzzing and her phone is teetering close to the edge.  
  
She wakes up slowly. Letting out a pleasant yawn as she leans over to rescue her phone from falling. How safe she feels this morning. Protected somehow. She chuckles to herself as she sprawls herself across her bed, this fortress of cotton. _Did she, a grown woman, really have a whole dream about pillow forts?_  

Across town, Frank is still dreaming.

It's one of the same dreams he always had.

Maria trying to kiss him as he brushes her off.

“I'm too tired,” he replies to her sad eyes.

Lisa pulling on his arm, “Daddy! Read me a bed time story?"

"I'm too tired, _"_ he replies to her disappointed face.

Frank Jr pulls on his opposite hand, “Daddy! Ride with me on carousel?"

"I'm too tired," he replies to his pouting face.

Frank watches frozen from the couch, no, the park bench, as three bodies fall.

He's huddling over them, craning his body down, hunching low. When he hears a quiet voice behind him.

“It's not your fault, Frank.”

He turns to see a pair of clear blue eyes staring at him.

She moves towards him, a few sympathetic tears in her own eyes. "It's not your fault."

Behind her emerges a blurry figure - that elusive scumbag - it pulls out a shotgun and unloads it into the back of Karen's skull.

Frank is helpless. All he can do is stare. Watch as her body jolts in response to each bullet being ripped through her body. In his head he can hear Karen's voice, "Why didn't you save us," she whispers. Her hollow voice bounces around his mind, "You promised. The night of your wedding, the night the kids were born, the night your fathered died. You told me I was safe. You told us all you'd protect us. Why did you only save yourself?"

Frank catches her as she falls forward. Blood of her body on his. Staining his hands. The blood settles into the fine lines on his palms. Everything is red but he can tell the difference. That stain is from Lisa, that one is from Junior, there's Maria, and now Karen.

Then, just as he did with his family, he holds her until the warmth fades away, until she is cold and deathly pale. Every comfort he tries to provide - brushing her blonde hair off her face, holding her hand - every touch is tainted with the bloodied handprints he leaves behind.

_Shit._ Frank thinks, blinking himself awake.

He clenches his jaw. Then wipes the dried flakes collected in the corner of his eyes.

He curses his solitary cell. He wouldn't mind a cell mate, some shitbag piece of garbage.

He could really use someone to punch right about now.

 

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote my first dream sequence! 
> 
> both karen and frank blame themselves for people they've lost. they both have a lot of guilt. 
> 
> so i wanted to use them as figures of each other's subconscious.
> 
> karen is more willing to let frank help her deal with those feelings. i think she takes comfort from him, when she forgives frank for his actions she is able to forgive herself for her own. he isnt monster and she isnt a monster. connection is what brings her peace. so in her dream frank is able to be a positive reinforcement of her inner thoughts. 
> 
> but frank on the other hand, he sees karen as another person he has to protect and i think that prospect scares him a little. to him, its another person he is going to let down. connection has only brought him pain. so in his dream, karen becomes a manifestation of all the negative inner thoughts he carries around.
> 
> i was pretty liberal with their backstories -- trying to convey to the reader when frank and karen had become the other's subconscious. in reality frank doesnt know about the pillow fort just like karen doesnt know what promises he made.... id love to hear feedback if this came across to you! or comments!


End file.
